In 1971 Porsche established a customer racing department for the sale of racing parts, with race driver Jurgen Barth offering support and professional advice to fellow race drivers and customer teams. Prior to this all such business had been an extension of the repair department going back to the days of the 356. This led to a growing connection between the factory repair department and the motorsports division resulting in the creation of a special...

Raw pre-production body in white shells – with no VIN stamp – were delivered to Jurgen Barth in Weissach where the race department would complete their production by hand. All 22 cars shared the same components with common use of left over parts. Although the most notable shared components are with the 953 and 964 Carrera 4, the car shared 763 individual part numbers sourced from no less than 15 Porsche models representing many multiples of that number...

The C4 Leichtbau’s build strategy was the polar opposite of its nearest sibling the 1990 Carrera Cup car. While Roland Kussmaul built the Carrera Cup car by stripping down a Carrera 2, Jurgen Barth built the C4 Leichtbau by building up a Carrera 4 shell. In the end the cars shared many similarities but also key differences and ironically the Cup car proved a better race car than the purpose built C4 Leichtbau. But the C4 Leichtbau was most...

C4 Leichtbau

In 1971 Porsche established a customer racing department for the sale of racing parts, with race driver Jurgen Barth offering support and professional advice to fellow race drivers and customer teams. Prior to this all such business had been an extension of the repair department going back to the days of the 356. This led to a growing connection between the factory repair department and the motorsports division resulting in the creation of a special request group or ‘Special Wishes’ – established in 1978 to oversee custom modifications to production series vehicles. The concept was such a success that in 1986 Porsche officially established an autonomous department to oversee all such ‘ex-works’ customization called Porsche Exclusive.

C4L Specifications

Raw pre-production body in white shells – with no VIN stamp – were delivered to Jurgen Barth in Weissach where the race department would complete their production by hand. All 22 cars shared the same components with common use of left over parts. Although the most notable shared components are with the 953 and 964 Carrera 4, the car shared 763 individual part numbers sourced from no less than 15 Porsche models representing many multiples of that number in parts/part assemblies.

C4L v Cup

The C4 Leichtbau’s build strategy was the polar opposite of its nearest sibling the 1990 Carrera Cup car. While Roland Kussmaul built the Carrera Cup car by stripping down a Carrera 2, Jurgen Barth built the C4 Leichtbau by building up a Carrera 4 shell. In the end the cars shared many similarities but also key differences and ironically the Cup car proved a better race car than the purpose built C4 Leichtbau. But the C4 Leichtbau was most certainly the more technologically advanced effort.